Wedding Day

The African wedding is beautiful. Of course, it lasts all day... but it's full of dancing, singing, music, and tons of food! Which we were in charge of. We got to watch the ceremony, then all of a sudden we were serving food to hundreds of people, we served for probably about 2 hours straight. After that we had some time to relax, have some sodas, and watch more of the festivities. There's not much to be said about the wedding, but I'll share some photos. We didn't get any while we were serving since... well, we were too busy serving...

Sawa sawa! Iko sawa (translation: okay! its okay)

Before the food frenzy begins...

Fully outfitted

The rest of the crew

Joyce and Sam

My beautiful African mother and I :)

And that, is that.

Winding Down

As my time here in Kijabe is coming to a close, I've just been taking on whatever comes at me that day. Not many plans are being made anymore with John since we've finished all of our projects, so I've just been hanging out around Kijabe doing everyday things that aren't incredibly interesting to blog about. I'm already missing my family here and I haven't even left yet! Joyce and Sam have been asking me every day if I can extend my stay, or just live here forever. They say I'm turning more and more Kenyan each day, with the washing my clothes by hand, not having showered in a SHOWER for 2 months (using a water basin), using a hole in the ground as a toilet, starting to be late to everywhere I go, and not needing to lather myself in sunscreen every hour cracked them up, "Every wazungu that comes here is red! You're Kikuyu!" (which is a tribe here in Kenya).
I've had supper a few nights with some of my dad's residents that are staying here in Kijabe for a little while, and last night I took them to Mama Chiku's for dinner. They really enjoyed it and Joyce and Sam loved meeting some more friends from America. I forgot how overwhelming the amount of food served to you is when you first get here, but they definitely got overwhelmed, they said, "man, we wont have to eat for another 2 days" all I could do was laugh and say, "story of my life..." Joyce, Sam and Kim sure never let me get hungry.
Today I went with John down to Old Kijabe Town and Maai Mahiu to take seeds to the widows that we have previously taken food to, so that they can start planting their shambas for this year.

A brother of one of the widows

So, as my time here comes to a close I will just continue to take it easy around Kijabe. This was the last day of working with John  but I'll still see him a few times before I go. In fact, I got a call today from the matron of the Siyiapei Children's Home, Evelyn... and she says that there is a gift her family has made and I have to go there and claim it before I go to Nairobi. Of course, any excuse I can get to visit the kids again I'll take, I can't ever seem to stay away from them can I? John was with me when I got the call, so he opted to go on Sunday with me, we'll just take the Matatu and it'll just be a day trip.
Tomorrow Joyce is catering a huge wedding in a nearby town called Limuru. I'll be going with to help serve and see the wedding. Today has been filled with many preparations for the meals, speaking of which I'm being called to finish watching them chop up the fresh beef, so I'll have to go now! I hope everyone is doing well, and staying healthy and happy at home! Love and miss you all.

Let Him Walk Again....

Yesterday John and I visited a friend of his in Maai Mahiu. He told me that the guy, Steven, was 20 years old. But when I got there and I saw him for the first time, it was impossible to believe. Steven was born with an abnormally large head, filled with fluid (all you doctors out there can help me with the medical term for this condition...). He lived a pretty normal life, the only problem was his head was about 3 sizes too big. He was able to go to school, walk, and function normally. No mental disabilities whatsoever. Some years ago Steven's head developed a blood clot due to all the falls he encountered because of his being so unbalanced. The clot pushed on his brain, disabling his ability to walk and continue growing. He couldn't continue school and was pretty much bedridden. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be to once have been able to walk, then having that seemingly simple skill stripped away from you? Can you imagine thinking you were growing up, when suddenly that development is stopped for good? I can't...

20 yr old Steven, with John

What never ceases to amaze me about almost all Kenyans in general, but especially cases like this, is that I didn't once see Steven without a smile on his face. Which you will notice in all the photos I post. We were at his house nearly all day, and every time I looked at him, he was full of joy. How they keep this mentality, I do not know... but it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

So, Steven had gone to Kijabe Hospital to get the blood clot removed and the doctors informed him that he could someday walk again with physical therapy and practice. But Steven's family can't afford that, he has no father and his mother pretty much abandoned him to prostitution in Maai Mahiu town, so Steven lives with his neighbors. His room is the little space behind him in the photo above. So, yesterday John and I built a wooden rail that Steven can hold on to, in order to practice walking.

Steven, one of the neighbor boys, and me digging the holes for the posts

Finished right in time for the rains to start again

I hope with all that's inside me that Steven will someday walk again, and attempt to live a somewhat normal life. It's already going to be hard enough being 20, 30, 40, or 50 years old stuck inside the body of a 10 year old.

Beating the Rains

Yesterday John and I started and nearly finished our last project. His neighbor is a woman who lives alone in a house that is nearly falling down. All the walls were made of rotten wood, most likely unable to make it through this coming rainy season, and her roof was sheets of metal that weren't very well put together, causing problems during the previous rains. So, we (well, we hired a couple guys) to pull down the entire ceiling. We then used the metal sheets from the ceiling to cover 3 walls, two of which get it the worst during the rains. It doesn't necessarily look more attractive, but it will make a huge difference during the stormy weather. When we were taking down the wood walls, it was sad how easy it was to do. You shouldn't be able to tear down a wall with just your hands...

Tearing down the walls to put the old metal sheets up. Notice the taunting rain cloud...

We really had to rush during this whole project. As usual this time of year especially this year, the morning was bright and sunny without a cloud in the sky, and all of a sudden, just in time, when all protection from water is removed from someone's home... the dark storm clouds roll in. So, we then began to put the new metal sheets on the ceiling. This time lining them up perfectly to avoid any gaps. When I was invited on to the roof, I had to swallow my fear of heights. This was the EXACT and only type of "heights" that I fear, being on an unstable surface, just close enough to the ground for the impact to not put you unconscious (well you can't feel the pain of the fall if you're knocked out...) but far enough to make you regret ever going up there. I gave my fear a whole lot of thought while I was scooting around the edge of the house, looking everywhere but down to avoid becoming dizzy, holding on tight, whispering "what am I doing, what am I doing."

Anyway, we got the entire roof up completely avoiding the rain. While the men were doing the finishing work, I started smoothing out the floor inside the house so that John and I can put in a new, better soil for flooring. Unfortunately we can't do cement floors, but he says this soil will harden and be good enough. We will put on the higher quality soil on Friday.

I was really surprised with how much was finished in one day. All we have left is the new soil on the floors. Hopefully this house will last many more years.

Before and After

And today, another relaxing, African rains kind of day...

Matatu Hoppin to Thika

 John and my trip to Thika this weekend was a good one. We had to take three different matatus to get there, one from Kijabe to Nairobi, Nairobi to Thika, and Thika to the outskirts where John's family lives. His family is structured the way that a typical Kikuyu's family is. The parents have a house on the property (John lost his father in October so now it's just his mother), then the sons of the family build houses on the land which are there for when they begin families of their own.

John walking on his land, every house pictured belongs to his family, along with the shambas.

The kitchen area

Of course, nowadays life isn't as traditional so John and a couple of his brothers have moved to other areas (obviously he lives in Kijabe, another brother of his lives in Kijabe, then the last born son lives in Nairobi). He has 2 brothers that live on the land in Thika. But, John still has a house built on the land for himself. John is one of nine, they used to be ten but they lost a sister exactly a year before they lost their father. Due to his sister's loss, his mother was left with 6 children. She takes care of them like they are her own, and they know they are in good hands.

John and his family. His sister and brother are at his sides, his mother to the far right, and his sister's children in front

John's family and I. His sister to my right is the first born, and the sister next to his mother is the last born (17yrs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were in Thika, John took me to see all the fruit plantations. We first went to a huge pineapple farm. I've never seen the way that pineapples grow, and it was pretty interesting to see. We had to ride around the farm searching for the guard to ask for permission to take photos, to avoid being chased away in case they thought we were planning on stealing. Apparently the punishment for stealing fruit is brutal beating.

Just about ready to harvest

Riding around the pineapple farm, to the left are newly planted pineapples

So that's just about it for the pineapples, now on to mangoes! We visited local families who just had mango trees in their yard, and I'm tellin ya, they had a LOT of mangoes. And different kinds also, there was one tree that grew 3 different kinds of mangoes. There were apple mangoes (which are purple, and very sweet) then "popo" mangoes, which is a papaya/mango hybrid (I don't like papayas, so THANKFULLY the mango part of the mixture made the papaya flavor balance out), and then I don't know what the other mango was called... it was just your typical one. So we got to snack on the delicious juicy fruits all day while we were picking mangoes to bring home. And it really amazed me how different each kind tasted.

The Hybrid Tree

We got a little carried away collecting the mangoes

So this morning we went back out to the mango trees and collected more for our homes here in Kijabe...

"Hey John, ya think we have enough?"

Carrying the loot

After we finished collecting our mangoes, it was time to head home (after a meal of freshly slaughtered chicken of course). So we got back on our first matatu. Which didn't go as smoothly as the previous day. As we were driving along a pretty busy road, from John's home to the main city of Thika, everyone was happily chatting on the matatu enjoying the Sunday afternoon when all of a sudden there was a loud thump and we came to a screetching halt. I looked out the window and there was a guy about my age flying to the side of the road. I was terrified at first, along with everyone else on board, and the guy's mother who was wailing on the other side of the street. We sat in silence for the longest 10 seconds of my life, wondering if the guy was even alive. There are so many deaths due to people being hit by matatu's and with the new highway that was recently put up (we weren't on the highway yet, but I think it was on our minds) the deaths have increased and I have seen stories about this topic on the news almost every time I watch. Finally, somehow, the guy stood up and announced that he was alright, shaking his head a bit and rubbing his leg. I don't know how he was alright, I thought we were going pretty fast, and the impact completely took off the side mirror of the matatu. The people around didn't want the guy to walk in case he was just in shock but really hurt, so they carried him and loaded him into the matatu. I've always kind of wondered how the drivers deal with these accidents so as disturbing as this COULD have been, it was interesting to witness. So, we were then all asked to get out of the matatu. Of course they were all speaking Swahili or Kikuyu so I had to ask John what was going on. Apparently the matatu driver is to take the boy to the hospital himself, so that he can pay for the hospital bills and whatnot. So they drove away, and we were all so thankful he didn't seem to be seriously hurt, but all still so amazed that he was okay. We waited around for another matatu and finally an empty one came so we all hopped on. About 5 minutes later our matatu broke down completely. I was with the same group of people as the previous matatu during the accident, so we all looked at eachother, and I think the relief of the boy's being okay and the hilarity of the fact that the one matatu we all got on is now broken, made each one of us laugh for about 5 minutes straight. So, time to get off the bus once more. At this point since we were so close to town many people just decided to walk, but since we had so many dang MANGOES there was no way we could lug those, even if just for 10 minutes. So we waited, waited, and waited some more and finally we were on our way home, officially.


I can tell you one thing, there's never a moment of being here that I forget I'm in Kenya. Aside from the friendly people, the smells (both good and bad), and the temperature, there is always some event that just makes me think, "Yep, I'm still in Africa..."
And I'm not complaining at all...